THE AMERICAN FAMILY. 69 



Guanares, the Guayacas and the Maquiritares. " The individuals of the fair tribes 

 whom we examined," says that traveller, "have the features, the stature, and the 

 smooth, straight, black hair which characterise other Indians- It would be impos- 

 sible to take them for a mixed race, like the descendants of natives and Europeans, 

 and they are neither feeble, nor albinoes."* Among the Botocudys of Brazil, the 

 Prince de Wied saw some who were almost entirely white, with a tint of red 

 upon their cheeks, although the usual color is a reddish brown.f Molina states 

 that the Boroanes, who inhabit the Araucanian provinces of Chili, in the thirty- 

 ninth degree of south latitude, "are white, and as well featured as the northern 

 Europeans.":f Bouguer found some Peruvian Indians at the base and on the west 

 side of the Cordilleras who were almost as white as Europeans. Bartram saw 

 among the Cherokees some young women, whom he describes as fair and 

 blooming; and among the nations of the island of St. Catharine, on the coast of 

 California, young persons of both sexes have a fine mixture of red and white in 

 their complexions. 



That climate exerts a subordinate agency in producing these diversified hues, 

 must be inferred, I think, from the facts mentioned by Humboldt, that the tribes 

 which wander along the burning plains of the equinoctial region, have no darker 

 skins than the mountaineers of the temperate zone. Again, the Puelches and 

 other inhabitants of the Magellanic region, beyond the fifty-fifth degree of south 

 latitude, are absolutely darker than the Abipones, Macobios and Tobas, who are 

 many degrees nearer the equator. While the Botocudys are of a clear brown 

 color, and sometimes nearly white, at no great distance from the tropic, and 

 moreover, while the Guyacas under the line are characterised, as we have seen, by 

 a fair complexion, the Charruas, who are almost black, inhabit the fiftieth degree 



"^ It is well known, however, that Albinoes are not unfrequent among the American Indians. 

 Those of Darien were minutely described by Wafer about a hundred and fifty years ago. " They 

 are quite white," says he, " but their whiteness is like that of a horse, quite different from the fair or 

 pale European, as they have not the least tincture of a blush or sanguine complexion. * * * Their 

 eyebrows are milk-white, as is likewise the hair of their heads, which is very fine, inclining to a curl, 

 and growing to the length of six or eight inches. * * * They seldom go abroad in the day time, 

 the sun being disagreeable to them, and causing their eyes, which are weak and poring, to water, 

 especially if it shines towards them ; yet they see very well by moonlight, from which we called them 

 moon-eyed." — Wafer, in Drake'' s Coll. of Voy, FoL p. 310. 



t Voy. au Bresil, II, 212.— I, 335. 



X History of Chili, I, p. 274. 

 18 



